The West Penn Township resident and other former waitresses from the restaurant of Allentown's Hess's Department Store will don their old uniforms and serve fresh slices of the newly reintroduced strawberry pie Friday March 8, during festivities at Allentown's Cosmopolitan restaurant.

Considered the crown jewel of Patio desserts, the rich pie's huge, glazed whole strawberries glistened like gems. Like hidden treasure, they were buried under a deep and fluffy layer of whipped cream.

Now that Cosmopolitan's chefs have researched recipes, re-created "the look" and revived the pie for the restaurant's menu, it has become a memory you can taste.

Over the years, countless home cooks have tried making the pie from memory for their families and cooking contests. Patio-style strawberry pies have been at the center of Hess's-themed charity fundraisers. Memories have also moved countless Morning Call readers to share their memories of the pie in stories over the years.

Why so much attention for a single dessert? You have to have seen it and tasted it to understand long-time residents' lasting love affair with this pie.

The pie was at the heart of many families' happiest celebrations during the glory days when the store and its restaurant were as much a part of the Allentown experience as seeing the lighted dome of PPL's office tower, crossing the Eighth Street Bridge or passing Soldiers Monument in Center Square.

Valley residents waited in long lines to enjoy Patio meals climaxed with strawberry pie, to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, first communions and soldiers' returns from overseas duty. Meeting for pie also became a tradition for teens and young adults celebrating the end of the school year, a sports win, getting driver's licenses or going off to college. Families often stopped in after church or even after selecting their Christmas tree. Of course, it also served as a picker-upper for shoppers who needed a break between bargain-hunting forays in the store's many departments.

"It was the Patio's 'wow' dessert," says Myron Haydt, who co-owns Cosmopolitan with Bill and Phyllis Grube. "You couldn't help taking a second look at it as waitresses carried slices past your table. It has become our 'wow' dessert, too."

Less than two months after Cosmo's chefs created their take on the famous pie and quietly added it to the North Sixth Street restaurant's menu, it has become their most popular dessert.

As was the Patio tradition, Cosmo is featuring the fresh berry pie year-round. A single slice is $12.95. Shocked at the price? Sharing is permitted. A whole pie, containing four pints of huge Driscoll strawberries and weighing more than seven pounds, is $68 and must be ordered at least 48 hours in advance.

Why stage a pie salute now? "Its "soft introduction" in January didn't provide the fanfare a dessert of this caliber deserves, explains Haydt.

Besides the strawberry pies and former Hess's waitresses, festivities will highlight another memorable Patio tradition — a parade of fashionably dressed models strutting through the dining rooms.

Cosmopolitan's decor also includes other reminders of the famous department store — two of its sparkling crystal chandeliers. Haydt says he also wants to reintroduce the little jars of rainbow-colored sugar that graced the Patio's tables and were sold as souvenirs.

The strawberry pie celebration is the second special event Cosmopolitan has staged for Allentown memory foods. In early January, Haydt started Sal's Spaghetti House Tuesdays, which will continue "forever," he says. Every Tuesday, guests can order the red sauce, pasta, meatballs and salads prepared the same way Sal Poidomani served them when his little Italian eatery occupied the space where Cosmopolitan now stands.

Maholick, the former waitress, recalls, "Before I started working at Hess's, my best friend and I used to meet at the Patio to talk and split a turkey club sandwich and a slice of strawberry pie."

During the five years she worked at the Patio, she often shouldered dessert trays loaded with six huge slices of strawberry pie at a time. "It took muscle to carry them, but it was fun to see the shocked looks on people's faces when they saw the size of the slices for the first time," she recalls.